I think we are approaching this from similar angles - hence my interpretation that
saudade is the closest thing possible to
hiraeth (and vice versa). Those of other languages outside our own, struggle for a definition, don't you think?
I suppose the idea must be some sort of 'bittersweet longing' (for Lusitania, for Cymru) also works - someone already mentioned a 'sweet sadness' above. Can it not be argued that only a culture which has
saudade can also have songs of the
fado genre? (I can't say that we have the equivalent in Welsh or Wales - but there is a natural melancholy to much of our national mood, if I am permitted a gross oversimplification. That's not to say the Portuguese are a naturally morose people either - far from it, from the ones I know personally! Maybe Galicians also have this feeling, too ...)
Hiraeth is not so much related to a person, although if they symbolise/personify part of our culture we have lost and are unable to reclaim, then I guess we can feel
hiraeth, here too. But, and, I'm sure, PT will agree with me here, it's not a question of 'grief' or indeed, 'nostalgia' - it's that bittersweetness again for another lost link (to the past).
I'm glad you enjoyed the article. Perhaps someone would like to take up the baton and write an extensive piece on the similarities and differences of PT/CYM experiences of
saudade and
hiraeth.
